


Reciprocity

by xslytherclawx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Chocolate Box Exchange, Chocolate Box Treat, F/M, Intimacy, Past Relationship(s), Pen Pals, Shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29095869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xslytherclawx/pseuds/xslytherclawx
Summary: Hermione writes Viktor for two years between the end of her fourth year and Bill and Fleur's wedding.Viktor always writes back.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Comments: 14
Kudos: 47
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6, xslytherclawx’s events collection





	Reciprocity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [embraidery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/embraidery/gifts).



> I saw your request, and was inspired to write this. I hope you like it, embraidery!
> 
> thanks to sof for looking it over!

Hermione is much too practical to engage in a long-distance relationship, much less when she had O.W.L.s, and then had to help save the Wizarding World, and then N.E.W.T.s.

But on the other hand, she’s not about to let a connection completely fizzle out just because it’s impractical to date someone hundreds of miles away.

So she writes.

Viktor writes back.

It’s not love letters – not by far. She keeps him apprised of the goings-on in her life (with certain respect for privacy), and he does the same. 

In the beginning of her Fifth Year, he surprises her with a large, lumpy packet of House Elf hats and a letter about his formation of a Durmstrang chapter of S.P.E.W. – because she’s right; House Elves are sentient beings, and no sentient being should be enslaved.

She writes him back with some advice on how to ensure House Elf liberation.

It’s not constant communication, and sometimes Hermione goes a month or two without sending Viktor a letter.

He always sends her one back within the week.

In Sixth Year, she finds that she can write to Viktor without receiving any sort of judgement. Writing is easier than talking, anyway, especially when it comes to feelings. Viktor listens, as he always has, and offers advice when he has it, and a metaphorical shoulder to cry on when he doesn’t.

It’s something she doesn’t find in any of her friends at Hogwarts – not Harry, certainly not Ron, not even Ginny or Neville, or any of the other Prefects (though she’s not sure they quite  _ count _ as friends, properly, but still).

It’s refreshing.

He tells her he’s going to Bill and Fleur’s wedding before she’s even certain she is. She barely knows Bill or Fleur, after all, and her friendship with Ron and Ginny (and Harry, who is an honourable Weasley) aside, she’s not sure how exclusive the guest list is.

But of course she’s invited.

In retrospect, she’s not properly prepared herself for this. She’s not been  _ dating _ Viktor this entire time, surely, but she did quite like him once. (As silly as it sounds to fixate over this, he  _ was _ her first kiss). She likes him, still, at least as a person.

She could throw out some cliché about how he’s only grown more handsome, or how her heart skips a beat when she sees him, but none of that is true. 

Viktor looks comfortingly like  _ Viktor, _ and neither her heart nor her stomach try any sort of gymnastics when she sees him.

It’s easy to fall into conversation with him as if they’ve seen each other sometime in the past two years, as if they’ve not just been restricted to letters. 

Viktor has never been a man of many words, but he  _ listens _ to Hermione as she talks, and he provides his own insight.

It strikes her, as he asks her to dance, that she’s  _ missed _ him.

“I might not be able to write much this year,” she tells him under her breath.

“Is something wrong?”

Hermione shakes her head. “No. But I’m helping Harry this year, and we… won’t be returning to Hogwarts. Sending letters will likely be too dangerous.”

“Your safety is more important than our letters,” Viktor says, as if anything else, short of her safety, is trivial.

The really mad thing is that she’s sure he means it.

**Author's Note:**

> visit me on [tumblr](http://xslytherclawx.tumblr.com)!


End file.
